Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Bleargh!

Both T. and I were zapped this evening: We had a whole week off; I ate poorly, today; and T.'s been getting too little sleep.

We got to see M.L.'s sankyu test, though, and he did very well.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Basics

Tonight, we worked on basics: taisabaki for katatetori and katatekosadori , katatetori kokyunage, shomenuchi kokyunage, katatekosadori shihonage, yokomenuchi shihonage. We're prepping L., K., and T. for rokkyu testing and M. and S. for sankyu testing in the next few weeks. I was glad to see T. jumping in to work with people before class started to work on technique.

I worked out pretty well and didn't completely poop out. I sat out only once, half-way through one technique.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Early Morning Breakdown

Sensei asked M. to help the T., L., and K. get ready for 6th kyu testing in December and suggested that this morning was a good time to start. T. had some trouble getting up that early - she always does! I dropped her off ten minutes late and parked the car so I was fifteen minutes late. We started doing some aiki taiso after some warming up but were interrupted by the staff person at the rec center who told us that a birthday party had the room reserved. Well, aikido teaches us to be flexible and to "roll with the punches" so we put the mats away and went out on the lawn. Sensei M. reconvened us with some ki testing (a 6th kyu requirement). Then, since we had enough bokkens between us we worked on the bokken kamae and suburi. We ended with bokken kata number 1 which is the bokken version of happo undo.

T. really enjoyed the bokken. She made me work with her for another 20 minutes after we got home.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Lots of Katatetori, tonight!

We are getting L., K., and T. ready for their rokkyu (6th kyu) tests and M. for his sankyu (3rd kyu) test in December. T. did well in her randori practice.

Katatetori shihonage omote, katatetori kokyunage, katatetori iriminage, katatetori sumi otoshi, etc. Lots of good stuff tonight. (You have to look all those up yourselves!)

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Ikkyo and Nikkyo

T. stayed home sick, tonight. I was running on low steam but pushed until I couldn't stand. I had a lot of good and understanding partners. (Of course, I always do in our dojo.)

We did a lot of work on katatori ikkyo and nikkyo, both omote and ura, for the bulk of the class tonight. They're standards on the round of tests that are coming up for some of our newer members. We finished the evening with ryokatatori kokyunage.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

The Night of the Living Yudansha!

The five yudansha that showed up this evening got to teach for a portion of the class. M., our newest shodan, acquitted herself well - her hakama was being nice and didn't trip her up!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Basics am good!

K. sensei taught tonight. We did some ukemi practice (which I *really* need!). We also stepped through the basics of tenkan blending, setting up for either kote gaeshi or sankyo, depending on how nage chooses to take a hold on uke's wrist.

T. and I both ended up sweat-soaked and tired but in a good way. We got a copy of a DVD of M.'s shodan test last Saturday. T. and I missed seeing it by about half an hour - bummed!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Gokyo and Sushi!

We worked with an uncommon attack tonight - gyaku yokomenuchi. From this attack we practiced ikkyo omote, tanto dori ikkyo, gokyo and sankyo.

I've never worked with gokyo before though I have seen it. It requires a very quick fall straight down on your front while kicking your legs way out behind you. I bumped my knee a bit trying that move. I had better luck with sankyo.

T. was a little nervous working with the tanto - she was treating it as if it was a real knife.

Afterward a bunch of us went out for sushi to celebrate Sensei's birthday.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Pooped again!

T. and I went today though we were both tired. I sat out too much (enough so I didn't hurt myself, though!). We were in the final prep for M.'s shodan (first degree black belt) test this Saturday. We worked on hanmi handachi. We started with the standing version of the technique emphasizing a big first step because in the kneeling version taking a huge step is critical to blending properly and not getting bowled over.